"Tragic Comedians"

In class today, we discussed briefly about how comedians are, for the most part, tragic people. The example being Robin Williams.

Last week I come across this passage and wrote it down in my thought book, so when we got on that subject today I was pretty tickled.

"They are joking not because they are merry, but because they are not; out of the emptiness of the heart the mouth speaketh."
G.K Chesterton Heretics : On smart Novelists and the Smart Set  pg. 112

"For a hearty laugh it is necessary to have touched the heart. I do not know why touching the heart should always be connected only with the idea of touching it to compassion or a sense of distress. The heart can be touched to joy and triumph; the heart can be touched to amusement. But all our comedians are tragic comedians. These later fashionable writers are so pessimistic in bone and marrow that they never seem able to imagine the heart having any concern with mirth. When they speak of the heart, they always mean the pangs and disappointments of the emotional life. When they say that a man’s heart is in the right place, they mean, apparently, that it is in his boots. Our ethical societies understand fellowship, but they do not understand good fellowship. Similarly, our wits understand talk, but not what Dr. Johnson called a good talk. In order to have, like Dr. Johnson, a good talk, it is emphatically necessary to be, like Dr. Johnson, a good man — to have friendship and honour and an abysmal tenderness. Above all, it is necessary to be openly and indecently humane, to confess with fulness all the primary pities and fears of Adam. Johnson was a clear-headed humorous man, and therefore he did not mind talking seriously about religion. Johnson was a brave man, one of the bravest that ever walked, and therefore he did not mind avowing to any one his consuming fear of death."
G.K Chesterton Heretics : On smart Novelists and the Smart Set  pg. 113-114

It is my belief that the funniest people have often experienced the most tragedies. I have seen plenty of people who are hilarious! They know where and when to throw the perfect joke, they have people coughing up food, choking on drinks, and laughing till they have tears streaming down their face.
But then you see them at other moments and its like seeing a comedian on stage after the audience has left and they're just sitting on their stool alone. They are sorrowful. They are tragic. They are poor-naked-wretches. And they know it, they understand.

People who have experienced tragedy, know what is it to be truly joyful. Or at least they know how precious that feeling is because that feeling had been so distant from them at one time. Perhaps it is because they are so far from feeling joy, that they decide to crack a good joke.

 "-But all our comedians are tragic comedians."